1. Field of Disclosed Subject Matter
This disclosure relates to systems and methods for providing an improved re-sealable self-aligning sliding magnetic seal system, including for use in image forming systems and xerographic image forming systems.
2. Related Art
Virtually all classes and types of image forming devices and/or systems include one or more customer replaceable components or units (commonly referred to as “CRUs”). Many of these CRUs are routinely replaceable based on an indication of an end of service life condition for the CRUs, or exhaustion of consumable products, such as ink and toner, packaged in the CRUs. The service life of a particular CRU, or the consumable product level in the CRU, can be tracked and measured, for example, according to a number of image forming operations that the CRU may undertake. For the purposes of this disclosure, the terms of CRU and consumable may be used interchangeably.
Marking materials for marking image receiving media substrates, including, for example, charged toner particles for use in electrostatographic and xerographic image forming devices, are provided in source CRUs, including toner bottles or reservoirs, that are configured to afford convenience to the user in replacing the toner. Further, there are myriad transporting or translating components between the toner source and the components on which a toner image is formed for transfer to an image receiving media substrate. The objective of customer convenience in easily replacing any of these components, without reliance on manufacturer or supplier service personnel, may introduce other concerns in a marking material supply path between a CRU marking material source and an ultimate marking material delivery system for depositing the marking material on, for example, an intermediate transfer body, or ultimately on a substrate.
Difficulties arise, for example, where myriad intermediate customer replaceable components, each with a specific configuration, may be positioned between the CRU marking material source and the ultimate marking material delivery system in the image forming device. At each interface between individual components, it is important to seal the marking material supply path. Migration of, for example, charged toner particles outside of the marking material supply path between the CRU marking material source and the ultimate marking material delivery system can disadvantageously affect operation of the image forming device. When image forming device operation is adversely affected, service personnel from the manufacturer or supplier of the image forming device may need to be contacted in an effort to clean interior surfaces of the image forming device that are not intended to be cleaned by customers.
Based on the above, it is recognized that it is important to provide a generally securely closed marking material supply path, particularly between individual components that are movable and/or removable with respect to each other, for toner transport throughout the image forming system. This may be accomplished by providing positive sealing, using certain sealing components, between certain non-stationary mating parts associated with the movable and/or removable components, including those associated with customer replaceable components, in a marking material supply path in an image forming system. Specifically, at each interface between any non-stationary mating part in the image forming system, particularly those used to transport charged toner particles from a marking material source to the ultimate marking material delivery system, it is important to provide some positive mechanical seal at the each interface.
Conventionally, the positive mechanical seal has been comprised of a thick-foam sealing component for providing a pressure based sealing between cooperating openings in multiple mechanical components. Routinely, the thick foam seal is slightly oversized to the gap between the ultimate positions of the cooperating components, and the openings between those cooperating components in their final or home positions, i.e., once those cooperating components are finally operationally mounted in the image forming device. Foam materials, often covered with mylar or similar thin-film plastics, then provide a flange surrounding the cooperating openings in adjacent mechanical cooperating components in order to attempt to provide a closed supply path for marking material translated along the process path between the individual cooperating components. Simply put, the compressible foam fills the gap, while the mylar or other similar thin-film plastic provides a sliding surface to protect the foam. Difficulties with such a design include that, by nature, the conventional thick foam seals must be deformed in some manner during installation of the components to which they are attached, and when the components are in their operating positions, the thick foam seals only operated effectively by maintaining an opposing force between the cooperating components between which the thick foam seals are placed.
Toner seals, such as those generically described above, positioned, for example, between a developer housing and a duct assembly in electrostatographic image forming device, may function adequately under normal operating conditions for the electrostatographic image forming device. The thus-configured toner seals may provide an adequate mechanical conduit for the translation of the charged toner particles along a flow path between cooperating components in a manner that fairly effectively contains translation of the toner particles between openings in separate cooperating components. Generally, these toner seals are attached with an adhesive to an opening in one or the other of the cooperating components. A specific example is where the toner seals are attached with an adhesive assembly to an opening on a top of a trickle duct assembly in a particular image forming device configuration. Such an opening may be designed to accept excess toner from a cooperating opening in, for example, a developer housing module during routine operations in the image forming system.
A configuration of these individual cooperating components may, however, define that one or the other of the components may be designed to transversely slide away from the other of the components to facilitate (1) individual cooperating component removal and replacement, or (2) access for maintenance or for other individual component removal and replacement requiring temporary removal of one of the other of the individual cooperating components.
Placement and mating of the individual internal components in the image forming device may not optimally provide for mating of individual cooperating openings in an orthogonal installation process along an axis of the individual openings that may result in simple compression of the thick foam seal between two cooperating faces. Rather, it is more often the conventional case where individual components are slid transversely to an orthogonal axis between the openings. Such mechanical motion between cooperating components tends to transversely deform the conventional thick foam seals as one or the other of the cooperating components is slid across a facing surface of the thick foam seal. Such motion may affect the operational integrity and/or efficiency of the thick foam seals. Any compromise of a mating capacity of a conventional thick foam seal based on, for example, sliding attachment motion between cooperating components, may eventually result in unacceptable damage to the seal, resulting in unacceptable toner/developer material leakage within the image forming system. As noted above, this toner material leakage may adversely affect image quality for the images produced by the image forming system, or may lead to random operating malfunctions or ultimately to an overall lifecycle degradation for the image forming system specifically attributable to the material leakage and internal system contamination.